Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Hello to my blog followers. I know I am not the most popular blogger on the planet but I am getting pretty disheartened at not ever getting any comments from anyone..... like ever..... do I suck that bad? Don't answer I know I do.... yes that is a bit harsh even for self critisism but thats my opinion at this point in my life. How the hell do I have over 600 friends on FB and almost the same on Twitter but can't get more than 25 of my amazing "followers" to stop by and comment on my little musings. Do I need some flash and dazzle contest? Do I need a revamp of my blog? Do I need to offer some daily or weekly dose of nekkidness? (I do have the hunk of the day on the bottom of the blog.... scroll down and see).

I am lost as to what to do..... I am open to any ideas..... yeah I am holding my breath ...... waiting..... waiting.... LOL Yeah No idea what to do. Well lets just leave that open and anyone want to jump in and make me an offer I can't refuse.... I am open to offers. I would even give it all up to just join in on the fun on another blog with my same likes..... Henry Cavill and Hockey (Sabres especially) and Vampires.... I know that there are more than just myself who enjoy those activities.... and believe me Henry Cavill loving is a very nIIIIIce activity.

So what is new in my little slice of life. Well, working on some very lovely bookthongs for some amazing authors this week. Had some trouble when a few big orders came in getting the proper beads in to enamel but after talking nicely to the fabric store where I buy them, I am happy to say that I will no longer have that problem in the future. They are very pretty BTW.... and I take orders at any time so please just drop me a line and ask.

My other major news..... I have to find a way to pull through the pain from my chronic shoulder pain and exercise more....and loose some weight. My eating and sleeping problems lately have not helped in this situation and now the Doc has put his foot down. I know my main problem is I eat a lot of grains and breads and I am targeting that as my first priority. Today.... at least up until right now I have had only 2 slices of bread compared to my usual 4-6 by this time in the day. If I can at least keep to that target for the first week I will be happy..... oh and keeping away from the sweets.... I made it a point of making sure the last of my milkdud stash is gone. LOL So..... any ideas I would love to hear them. I need to drop at least 1-2 a week over the next 8 weeks to meet the Docs first target. So.... by my anniversary I need to be down a minimum of 10 pounds. We shall cross our fingers and hope.

I must close now but would love to hear from anyone.... yes anyone on any topic..... I might even blog again this week and tell you all more about my possible trip to see my beloved Sabres take on one of my fave players off Buffalo, Steven Stamkos (have to support the cutie who played for the Sarnia Sting) and also dig in to the whirlwind that being a hockey parent entails when gearing up for his first Draft year.....

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Todays post is going to be short and sweet. I am trying not to distract myself with other stuff and get some reviews done. Unfortunately my sons left CMT on and the videos today are distracting.... and it is too cold to move out of my blankie to find the remote... LOL

Two things I want to inform you about today. Both events at Bitten by Books one today and one tomorrow. The first is todays event, a Kindle contest and interview with Kate Pearce. If you have yet to read the first book in Kates Tudor vampires series you have missed something major. This book was amazing. I read the reviews and bought it a while back but it sat on my TBR pile until I took a break and put a dent into my pile in early January. So not happening when the next book Blood of the Rose gets here hopefully very soon. I ordered it along with a few others last week when I got some late Christmas money. In any case check out the interview and by all means take this as a suggestion ...... go buy both books and enjoy. Here is the link.....

The second event is another book that was recommended to me last week too. Unfortunately I have yet to read this book but the comments and reviews have put it on the TBB list for sure. Check out Darynda's contest today as well. You can check it out tomorrow at BBB but for now you can RSVP to get more contest entries.....

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Today I am not at my peak so I thought about getting a few things done that didn't take too much energy. When it came push to shove, the thing I wanted to get done the most was scratched off the list since I can't find my findings to get further on a book thong order I am working on. So what else, read, write up some reviews? I should do both or either but my brain does not want to wrap around anything today. So here is my meet in the middle compromise..... write a new blog entry... hopefully get my juices flowing so I can work on my reviews and maybe while I am sitting here I can remember where my findings are.

So what to talk about..... today it is an easy jump. The other day my 12 YO came home from school and said.... Mom there is a girl in my class that says there is no way you talk to all these authors and know so many of them. I said to him "Well, what did you tell her?" His reply.... "Well she does and she gets all these signed Arc things all the time." Laughing I asked well who is this person and which author is it that she likes. "Its Bailey (his kinda gf) and she likes the tenth grade books""Ah that would be Heather Brewer?""I don't know.... the one that you have on the car" (my antenna topper is the Vampire Tod symbol ball)We left it at that and had supper. Sitting in my room I was in the middle of something when I looked at one of my piles of books that had some buttons from RT on it..... sitting there was one of a few Heather Brewer smiley vamp buttons I had snagged. Calling my son up I gave him the button to give his friend the next day.... "She is going to love this mom. Its her favorite author."The next day after school I asked if he remembered to give it to her. "Oh yeah she liked it.""Well what did she say?""Oh..... thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou....."I smile and say well I am glad. He smiles and leaves the room blushing with rosey cheeks.

So with that little "glad I made someones day" moment I remembered back to the first week in January. We were at same sons cadet Christmas dinner which had been postponed due to the massive storm we had in Dec. Sitting across from me was a teenaged girl who was kinda sullen about coming out to the dinner with her dad, bro and grandma. There was a halo around her that said stay away.... I don't want to be here and don't want anyone to notice me. Here was several boys she was crushing on and she had to sit there and take the teasing that was going on around her since she was not a part of the group. Well as it turns out, her father and I grew up hanging around each other so our little anecdotes and conversation slowly turned her head away from the boys and into our conversation. Turns out she is a want to be writer. In fact she loves the paranormal and tends to go towards the dark stuff. Her first question to me when I tell her that I am a reviewer???? "So what is your opinion on the Twilight books?"

Ah, knew this was coming.... it always does. Debating whether to say what I truly felt or give it a little softening, I decided to say what I thought and see what she had to say.

"Well, I liked the books, but they were not even close to the best of the genre and the portrayal on the big screen left much to be desired."

Holding my breath to see her reaction. She got a big grin on her face and countered with "Wow. That is the truth. I thought the same thing." LOL I sat there and let the relief surround me. I don't want to be the catalyst that discourages young people to stray from what they want to do but with a teen and that dicey subject it is hard not to be honest and get grief from most that you talk to about it. After that ice breaker she was a non stop dynamo. There was no option to continue talking to her dad.... she asked me question after question and really listened to the advice I gave her about following her dreams and her plans to continue writing whatever she wants. I also reminded her to keep her works.... looking back some day those grade 6 essays that the teacher deemed too dark might be the start of a thesis in college that leads to a promising career. We ended the night with everyone getting involved in their gift exchange and our little conversation forgotten. The one thing that was different though..... this young girl glowed with self worth.... and she confidently came up to me as we were leaving and said..... "Guess what.... I got two email addy's from two boys and three asked for mine.... Don't tell dad".

Go to Shiloh Walkers blog. Leave a comment. That it. She needs 400 comments and she will make a $400 donation to this cause. Marrion P'Udongo is a hero. He needs help. Go to her blog and give her the support to help out with this cause. While you are there if you are able to help out with a monetary donation there is a prize made of awesome that I would die for but being unemployed I am not able to help that way. This is my way to help.... get the word out and spread it around.... please do not link it to the various "contests" pages.... use your own words, your tweets, your blog or even just a few words. It will help. And Thank you..... from both myself and Shiloh and mostly from a very important man who needs some support.

Hey blogworld. Been a while, I know I should make this my go too every day or at least every week but I am not happy with what I have going on here and want to make a change. That would be fine but with no income I am totally hogtied.

So why did I decide to stop by tonight and grace everyone with a blog post...... I don't really know why to tell the truth. And if I am really honest maybe this isn't the best time to post a new blog while I am in the middle of watching a Buffalo Pittsburgh game. I am a biiiiiig hockey fan and love my Sabres but there are a handful of teams I cannot stand. Anyone who has friended my on FB or Twitter know I am very much anti-Pittsburg professional teams. The PENGUINS at the top of the list but the Steelers a close second. But.... I will try to ignore the current score and the biased announcers who do not have a frekkin clue and continue on.

This week has finally given me a few highs. Something that I have been missing lately. First I won the monthly contest for pumpin out 23 reviews last month then the same day I found out I won a contest by the very special Joanne Kenrick. She had a contest all month for those who supported her new book (Which I gave a 4 1/2 out of 5) When a Mullo Loves a Woman. So with those wins I was close enough to pick out a new ereader. Mine, if anyone remembers was bought last Christmas, was a joyous occasion but soon turned to irritation when the battery caused recurring problems. Even after sending it in at the end of the warranty to get fixed it came back the same. So now unless I want to use it wired into the wall I can get about 2 hours out of it tops, and that is if I don't use the touch screen or Goddess forbid use the notebook features. So I bobbled back between getting a kindle or a cruz tablet. I was told not to get a certain type of touch screen and the lower end cruz was one of those. I then checked out the 301 Cruz tablet Android and decided to jump in and go for it. It was on sale too and only $40 bucks more than the kindle it is full colour and is loaded with the kindle app and I can use my pdfs too.

To polish off that day, my good friend Marnie sent me an old blackberry to use along with an extra autographed Gena Showalter book and I won an autographed book from Katie MacAlister. So whoot to the hoot. I am on top of the world. Then today, my son finally decided that he would give me some cash to order some books for my Christmas present. (I won't get into it but Christmas this year was harsh.... I only got to open one gift, and it was something I probably will never use or wear but that is all behind me now... :( ) So happy happy, with the money and about another tenner, I ordered 10 books from the Book Depository ending my book buying drought. LOL

So what else have I been doing....... stalking NHLers or rather ex NHLers at my sons hockey tournament seemed to be my most exciting highlight of late. My son played in a major International Silver Stick and played against several ex NHLer's sons. Their team is a lower ranked team (46 in Ontario 64 in Canada) but they held their own against the top teams in North America. Now it is time to get his stuff in gear for summer hockey. Last summer he competed for Team Ontario in the State Wars Inline tournament and this summer we are hoping to find a competitive team for him to do some tournaments as well. On top of that next year is draft year and there are scouts out at almost every game. Was a good moment to hear that the scout at last weeks game was only interested in him.... especially when they had a bad loss and he got kicked out with half a period left over.... yep the boy has his momma's temper. LOL

Well it is time to head out. I plan on making one extra post that I will add separately. My fave author Shiloh Walker is one author that tells it like it is and puts her heart on her sleeve when it comes to supporting those in need. Right now there is a hero who needs everyones help. Being unemployed I am not in the position, no matter how tempting the prize, to put money to the cause but I would love any of my few followers to check out her blog and do what they can do. Thank you for that BTW..... tell her your opinions and make your comment count.

Oh yeah..... Go Sabres Go..... down by one right now so it is still anyones game. And lets GO STING tomorrow.... we need to get back into the game and show Chatham that Monday was a fluke... Oh and I might as well add...... GO GREEN AND GOLD..... Lets go Packers..... :)